Historic: Supreme Court approves live-in relationships, asks Parliament to enact law

“Unfortunately, there is no express  statutory  provision  to  regulate  such  types  of  live-in relationships upon termination or disruption since those relationships  are not in the nature of marriage.  

“We can also come  across  situations  where the parties entering into  live-in-relationship  and  due  to  their  joint efforts or otherwise acquiring  properties,  rearing  children,  etc.   and disputes may also arise when one of the parties dies intestate.

“Such relationship, it may be noted, may endure for a  long  time  and can result pattern of dependency and vulnerability, and  increasing  number of  such  relationships,  calls  for  adequate  and  effective  protection, especially to the woman and children born out of that live-in-relationship.

“ Legislature, of course, cannot promote pre-marital sex, though, at  times, such relationships are intensively personal and people  may  express  their opinion, for and against.  See S. Khushboo v. Kanniammal and another (2010) 5 SCC 600.

“Parliament  has  to  ponder  over  these  issues,  bring  in  proper legislation or make a proper amendment of the Act, so that  women  and  the children, born out of such kinds  of  relationships  be  protected,  though those types of relationship might not be a relationship in the nature of  a marriage.”